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Ronald Knox
12 quotes
“When suave politeness, temp'ring bigot zeal Corrected I believe to One does feel.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Absolute and Abitofhell", Oxford Magazine, October 1913
“There once was a man who said: "God Must think it exceedingly odd If he finds that this tree Continues to be When there's no one about in the Quad.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Langford Reed, The Complete Limerick Book (1924)
“Only man has dignity; only man, therefore, can be funny.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Essays in Satire, Introduction (1928)
“It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil, when he is the only explanation of it.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The prevailing attitude of the speakers was one of heavy disagreement with a number of things which the reader had not said.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only those of us, I think, who were born under Queen Victoria know what it feels like to assume, without questioning, that England is permanently top nation, that foreigners do not matter, and that if the worst comes to the worst, Lord Salisbury will send a gunboat.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: God and the Atom (1945). London: Sheed & Ward, pp. 53–54
“Words are living things, full of shades of meaning, full of associations; and, what is more, they are apt to change their significance from one generation to the next. The translator who understands his job feels, constantly, like Alice in Wonderland trying to play croquet with flamingoes for mallets and hedgehogs for balls; words are for ever eluding his grasp.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Englishing the Bible (1949). London: Burns Oates, p. 11
“It doesn't do to say that heresy produces the development of doctrine, because that annoys the theologians. But it is true to say that as a matter of history the development of doctrine has been largely a reaction on the Church's part to the attacks of heresy.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Hidden Stream (1952). London: Burns Oates, p. 139.
“All these riches, then, of her theology the Church has acquired, one might almost say, like the British Empire, in a fit of absence of mind. She was so busy scrapping with the heretics that she wasn't conscious of saying anything she hadn't always said; and yet, when she had time to sit down and look about her, she found it took ten minutes to sing the Credo instead of three.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Hidden Stream (1952). London: Burns Oates, p. 142.
“If you have a sloppy religion you get a sloppy atheism.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Penelope Fitzgerald, The Knox Brothers (1977), Ch. IV
“He who travels in the Barque of Peter had better not look too closely into the engine room.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reply when asked why he did not visit Rome, quoted in Penelope Fitzgerald, The Knox Brothers (1977)
“I suppose there has been no subtler attack upon the Christian faith devised by its enemies in these last hundred years than the attack made in the name of "comparative religion". If you pick up a book on "Atonement", and plough your way through ideas of atonement among primitive tribes, pagan ideas of atonement, Jewish ideas of atonement, Christian ideas of atonement, you will find by the end of it that atonement, for the author's mind, has ceased to have any meaning. And he has been successful, in so far as he has managed to infect your mind with the wooliness which is the leading characteristic of his own. Comparative religion is an admirable recipe for making people comparatively religious.”
Ronald Knox (1888–1957) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Hidden Stream (1952). London: Burns Oates, p. 105